Featured Publication

School Accountability: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

By Chester E Finn, Jr.

Results-based school accountability has been the linchpin of education reform in the United States for at least two decades. This follows from the conviction that schools are responsible for the extent to which their pupils are meeting their states’ academic standards. In recent years, achievement growth has been joined with academic proficiency in judging school performance. The idea is that it’s fairer and more accurate to use growth measures to appraise the performance of schools, especially those enrolling many disadvantaged pupils. That way, schools get deserved credit, even when proficiency is still a reach, as long as good progress is being made toward that goal. Accountability measures may also adjust for other important variables, such as high levels of student mobility. And other metrics of school performance, such as high school graduation, may be factored into such calculations and judgments.

Click here to read more.